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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to let my son spend HIS turn on the slide climbing up it instead of going down it?

236 replies

lookingforwards · 22/02/2011 14:56

Just had this happen again at play area (softplay this time) but its happened so many times over the last yr since DS could walk. He's a climber and thinks slides are for climbing. He waits his turn, then goes to the bottom and starts scrambling up it. After a suitable interval I get h im off and he waits again till the last child after him has had a go at which point I let him at the slide again for a scramble. He only gets about 1 minute if its busy but unlimited if there's noone else there. I lift him off if there's someone waiting at the top who has clambered up and wants to come down and then he can scramble again while they are climbing back up. He is 18 mths.

The problem starts when some other parent lifts their child/baby striahgt up to the top and then looks at me impatiently or says straight out 'can you take him off please?'.

Well I think a go spent climbing is as valid as a go spent coming down but the rest of the baby playground world apparently goes by a different etiquette where slides are for coming down and anyone climbing up is a pain and their parent needs to have it pointed out to them that their son is breaking all the unwritten rules.

So go on then AIBU, what's the verdict?

OP posts:
TandB · 23/02/2011 10:11

Wow, Cumfy. What on earth did you try to post?!

IWantToBeAFairyWhenIGrowUp · 23/02/2011 10:16

Confused why doesn't he use the areas for climbing instead of a slide to climb up. Isn't it dangerous? He could get a foot in the mouth one day or slip and bash his face.

I'm not sure if you ABU but if other parents are getting a bit annoyed then they must think you are.

cumfy · 23/02/2011 10:27

KFP
What happened there ?
I was just trying to use the thread normally.
:o

TandB · 23/02/2011 10:29

Cumfy - I bet you tried to post something naughty.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 23/02/2011 10:40

Ive just had a thought. OP what will your DS do when he is finally allowed to go to the park alone with his friends. He'll no longer be able to join is friends in the rebellious climbing the slide behaviour because he, unlike his friends has been always allowed to do it.. He'll feel left out. Confused. He'll go straight to setting the park bins on fire and then robbing cars. Not good really.
I say you stop letting him climb the slide immediately for the sake of his future pre-teen rebellious behavior.

ZZZenAgain · 23/02/2011 10:43

never fazed me in the least if dc climbed up slides. Only time I find that annoying is when they hog the slide: climb up, slide down, climb straight back up etc so no one else gets a chance to use it but that's rare IME

It is the ball players that get on my nerves - kicking balls about where toddlers are digging in the sand

gabity · 23/02/2011 10:46

Ooooh this thread has brought back painful memories for me!

When I was about 4 or 5 I was climbing up a slide and someone decided to come down. Knocked all my teeth out at the front, top and bottom. Ouch. Sad

ZZZenAgain · 23/02/2011 10:47

ouch indeed

ijudge · 23/02/2011 10:51

When I read threads like this I do wonder if the process of natural selection really works - I mean how is it possible that grown humans not only think like this, but teach their children this kind of thought process is acceptable.

I was on a bus yesterday with a mum, not only letting her young teenage daughter play loud music from her phone and annoy the whole bus, but actually actively encouraging her to do so.

Quite baffling.

Bogeyface · 23/02/2011 11:03

Good theory ijudge. So thick parents who let their kids do things like that dont pass the thick gene on as it gets kicked out of the kids, in this case via the mouth and another kids feet?! :o

FindingStuffToChuckOut · 23/02/2011 11:12

ah this thread is a hoot!! Abit Hmm at all the people worried about their kids getting dirty in a playground Confused, and very Grin at visions of all the oppressed British kids queuing politely (never seen at a playground I've ever been too).

you want some real playground rough and tumble - try the Princess Diana playground on a weekend (Kensington Gardens) - where it is mainly dominated by practically 'feral' older kids running wild, stomping unsuspecting under 4's in their wake! Forget queuing, and imagine trampling instead while their parents sit chatting over lattes. (it's very nice for the younger kids during weekdays however).

gabity · 23/02/2011 11:18

My slide climbing thick gene was def removed that day. Grin

In my mothers defence she wasn't there and spent a good while shouting at me for being thick before she took me to the dentist!!!

bullet234 · 23/02/2011 11:22

If I saw your ds climbing up the slide, then I honestly could not care aless at this age and in the softplay. Both my lads love climbing up the slide in the garden. Ds2 loves throwing muddy balls down them. I keep an eye on them in the playground and ensure they only slide down the slides though, partly because of muddy feet and partly in case there are children there who don't understand about waiting until the slide is clear.
I will say though, that when your ds gets older, he may think that if he climbs up the slide, then he must climb down the steps, which would be awkward and even possibly dangerous. Which is another reason why my lads only climb up the slide in their garden.

Francagoestohollywood · 23/02/2011 11:31

Hijack, sorry:

Bonsoir: I haven't seen La bella gente, it totally fell out of my movie radar. Will try to look for it on dvd, I like Elio Germano

Francagoestohollywood · 23/02/2011 11:39

Grin at "feral" older children in the Princess Diana playground. I didn't notice the hordes of feral 6 yrs old when I took my dc there.
Just children running around, and doing children things in a playground.

OnEdge · 23/02/2011 11:39

Shock You are being ridiculous OP. It is like expecting everyone to wait at the top of a one way street whilst you indulge in driving up it the wrong way.

Your child will learn the hard way when you are not with him and he gets a trainer shoved in his face.

SLIDE !!!! The clue is in the name really.
CLIMBING FRAME .........

If I was a parent with a child who was using the slide appropriately, I too would ask you you to move him out of the way.

OnEdge · 23/02/2011 11:42

Actually the more I think about this, the more ridiculous it gets !
It is so dangerous and stupid !!

TiggyD · 23/02/2011 12:07

Climbing up slides never happened before children got all jazzed up on froot shoots, girls started wearing only pink, and were given parent-child parking spaces.

begonyabampot · 23/02/2011 12:25

Am i the only one who has been pissed off at the park when your little one has been waiting patiently on the slide and some older kids decide to commandeer it and run up and down it with no thought to those who have been waiting - admit I've sometimes hoped for someone to slide and whack them. OTH, if the slide is empty they can climb all they want to.

OTheHugeManatee · 23/02/2011 12:26

This whole discussion just makes me think of this.

Grin
working9while5 · 23/02/2011 12:41

I am shocked at this!

Only have a 14 month old so haven't negotiated this particular issue but are you all quite mad?

Isn't the OP about one of those triangular cushiony type things, a sort of wedged cushion with some "steps" in the soft play baby area? Is that even a slide?

PMSL that an 18 month old Breaking the Rules is inching their way to a life in the lock up!

Most people who work with young toddlers spend an awful lot of time teaching them about the multiple ways play equipment can be used. I can see the need for judicious and careful supervision when it comes to slides but someone else on this thread said that if you let your child fingerpaint while other parents were trying to teach their child to paint properly it was downright antisocial Shock

MN can be a most surprising place!

FindingStuffToChuckOut · 23/02/2011 12:46

Franca you were there on a Tuesday :)

I'm talking about weekend afternoons when it's a different story entirely for the littlies. Midweek I can let my 3yo run around quite freely & she'll be fine. On busy weekends I really have to keep a close eye on her on anything to do with climbing/slides etc as the older kids just run straight over the little ones (every time we go). Probably a 6yo is a little physically bigger though and won't get as trampled.

It is the most marvellous playground though isn't it?

Francagoestohollywood · 23/02/2011 12:54

Findingstuff, I went there during last year's Easter holidays, it was quite packed (sadly, we don't live in the UK anymore)

It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been!!!

I so wish we had something similar here. Instead, our parks and playgrounds here in Italy are - mostly - quite neglected.
A friend of mine saw 2 people having sex on a slide in the playground near where she lives a few nights ago.
You will agree with me that the odd child climbing up suddenly becomes a no problem Grin

triskaidekaphile · 23/02/2011 13:00

lol- that could make a slide quite a lot more slidey, I guess, franca!
I once stamped some children's sandcastles to the ground in the Diana memorial playground because they were deliberately throwing sand in my 3 year old's face and he was weeping with distress and pain and I I lost it. Ah me. That was about 9 years ago. Time flies.

Tupperwarewolf · 23/02/2011 14:23

At the soft plays I go to, the slides are proper plastic ones, just inside, and there is always a big notice saying not to climb up it, plus staff (and me Grin) telling off the miscreants who ignore the sign. OP doesn't mention playgrounds in her first post but it is a bit irritating when our local park has big smears of mud down the slide because someone's been climbing up, more because it makes it non-slippy than due to dirt (we're outside with a toddler, dirt happens).

Grin @ Tiggy